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tonight. we have looking for what is real food. this is the making of america's greatest president, "congressman lincoln: the making of america's greatest president". thanks to c-span, for letting us talk about what we do and thank you for changing hands. the second event we have done having local bookstores like this, such a pleasure, i love spending time here, everyone is allowed to leave until every copy of this old. thank you for being here tonight. so once again the book "congressman lincoln: the making of america's greatest president," what do i mean by greatest president? i mean most significant. at an end of day abraham lincoln made the decision to pursue the south to engage them in a civil war in order to preserve the union, abraham lincoln who ultimately resolve the slavery issue that had taken american

statesman to the first of the founding. this story, y. "congressman lincoln"? there are 16,000 books written about abraham lincoln. if you good to ford's theater in washington d.c. which is the final scene of an extraordinary story, you will see that number on the ceiling. i don't mean books about the civil war, i mean this. but yet books about his time in congress, one of three political jobs he had, the only job he ever had in the federal government besides president, when you talk about lincoln and congress there have only been only three. the last thing i was written before was born. we are all familiar with his upbringing, and his service in the legislature. we know about his career in the

courthouse of illinois and a variety of cases, and frontier lawyer. we're sorry with the lincoln story as president, author of the emancipation proclamation, the guy who wrote the gettysburg address, the sixteenth president of the united states, the president--the greatest moral, political and civil, also during america's tragic war. this is a missing piece of the lincoln puzzle. the first thing i want to talk about is the ambition of abraham lincoln. we like to associate ambition, it is a negative thing, someone who wants to serve in politics and the associated with campaigns in politics. it is a negative thing for him. as a result we tend to focus on lincoln as somebody who was above politics, above the dirty campaigning and negative

campaign and all the things we associate and dislike about the modern political system but the truth is we can't make those criticisms without labeling them at abraham lincoln. the first chapter is called the most ambitious man in the world's. it is a quote about abraham lincoln and his law partners. abraham lincoln from nearly as part of his life, family members would have said he was awfully hungry to be somebody. once he got in trouble with his older sister he said behaving like that, what do you expect? he said president of the united states. as president lincoln said there was never a time in my life when i didn't believe i was going to be president of the united states. this was someone who was very determined and work hard to make something of himself and have his life be one we would remember and talk about so many

years later. and he made his first bid for congress and he writes a friend of his and says did you hear anyone say mr. lincoln is a good friend of mine, kelly about this statement, the truth is i would like to go very much. clinton has two major obstacles in his way. one is a gentleman named edward baker who is a friend of his. another is a gentleman named john hart. both of these men have similar qualifications, they are all about the same age, all three lawyers, former members of the legislature. similar qualifications. lincoln's first the convention, his county, they are going to nominate delegates to a congressional meeting where the nominee for the whig party will

be chosen. you are an ambitious whig in illinois is your only hope to move up, you are not going to be elected governor or get chosen for u.s. senate by the legislature. if you are an upwardly mobile whig in 1843 this was your chance. so lincoln at the county convention, it doesn't go as he planned. at least one of the newspapers reported that if he had hung in into nightfall his supporters would show up later in the day, maybe outnumbering baker's people. as it stands, lincoln ends up at a convention but edward baker, his opponent, lincoln said it was similar to being the guy who gets cut out of a relationship, gets his girlfriend stolen from a man has to stand up. lincoln goes to this district convention, defeated by heart so

now you have those younger than lincoln, be there as young as he wants. lincoln can see this dream of his going to congress going very quickly. abraham lincoln comes up with an idea. pretty sure he came up with an on-the-spot. if there's any way to do this. lincoln offers a resolution and says we congratulate heart on his victory and recommend edward baker as nominee in a few years so before heart gets sworn into office he has a resolution at the convention hanging over his head. before he gets warning announces to abide by that resolution and a pardon -- baker gets a turn and who gets a turn after that? abraham lincoln. he has to buy his time. to make a come back. turnabout is fair play. he is not going to take shots,

he is not going to try to be on the edge. everyone who works in politics knows when you are in a political primary the toughest fight, the most aggressive fights are between people of their own party because there is no way to get that on the issue. lincoln stays away from all the negative campaigning, she says turnabout is fair play and it works. todd and decides not to run again. lincoln in 1846 is unanimous choice of the whig convention in the illinois and he has to go up against a democrat by the name of peter, a methodist preacher but not like any other creature. he is a guy who had revival's interrupted by people he later assaulted. peter thought he was a tough guy, getting put up in a new york hotel, use a hatchet to blaze a trail on the wall and get back to his room.

this is what lincoln has to go up against and lincoln is actually very successful. he has the biggest majority in the district, bigger than hardin's majority or baker's majority, he hasn't been year-and-a-half until he is sworn in so he continues to ride the circuit and go to court and handle cases and handle the affairs of his family. last case he handled before he heads to washington is the -- think about this, incredibly important when we see how lincoln, where lincoln is so madsen was a slave owner from kentucky who is chasing a slave in the a little like courts trying to bring him back and lincoln represents madsen. lincoln his entire life gets exposed to slavery, lincoln is born in kentucky and spend the earliest years of his life in

kentucky. he grows up in a county with 7500 people and the lincoln farm was near cumberland road which was america's first highway and lincoln could see people stopping on their way from wherever they were doing, this is something lincoln was very familiar with. and lincoln goes to new orleans as a riverboat captain and he sees the biggest slave market in north america, he sees the brutality and the horror of slavery and believes it is wrong and wishes it would end but also recognizes there are laws in place. can you believe this gentleman had a case so he represented mr. mattson, he would never see something like this from lincoln after he leaves congress so we will talk about what happens soon. december of 1847 abraham lincoln is a member of the 30th congress. what is fascinating, one of the most interesting things about lincoln's service, the most

famous member of the 30th congress is a former president, the only former president deserved, this is so fascinating because this is the link between lincoln and the founding fathers. in short time, they spend with one another, this is the link between lincoln and the founding fathers, a conversation they might have had. lincoln was so fascinated with the founding generation, the revolutionary war, got behind the declaration of independence to put together the constitution and started the new government. you can imagine what lincoln must have had for john quincy adams. john quincy adams shortly into his tenure dies on the house floor probably right in front of abraham lincoln and i started the book talking about that because it is a good analogy. lincoln's generation, that

fights the civil war, the first generation that doesn't have the benefit of the council, the founding generation. all these people with all this experience running the american government, this experience compromising on some very serious issues and putting things together, they were gone, left to settle these questions on their own so lincoln with john quincy adams talked to a man named alexander stephens who goes on to serve as vice president of the confederacy. how many people have seen the lincoln movie? it is an excellent movie. when lincoln is in negotiations on the river at the end and talking to the commissioner from the confederacy, one of those is alexander stephens who is lincoln's best friend in the house of representatives, they were both whigs in the days before political parties, they were both whigs, both in a

presidential campaign. lincoln also served with jefferson davis in the u.s. senate, the president of the confederate states of america. lincoln's vice president hannibal hamlin, the senator, lincoln's second vice president, who replaced andrew johnson, he was a member of the house with abraham lincoln. so many of these people who would later become critical in the civil war, who would become part of the presidency, they were all there in the 30 eighth congress. fascinating to interact with these people. before any of us can imagine later in history. what are the major uses when lincoln gets to congress? there's nothing bigger than the mexican-american war. they are trying to figure out -- something we can never imagine being in a prolonged war with our ideas of how to wrap it up. that is something lincoln and his colleagues had to confront.

he was content to let the matter lay until the war was resolved. the problem was, determined to treat everyone's silence as acquiescence as support for the war. lincoln's first major address as a member of congress, a spot resolution, he almost had the political theater. after his speech in the senate, and people who served one term of peace. people are already talking about abraham lincoln running for reelection. and everyone is talking about abraham lincoln, pretty clear he is not going to run again. one of the reasons, every part

of his resolution, and first shot in the mexican-american war. you can picture this country lawyer, the mobile house of representatives which is for those of you who have been in the capital, this is the meeting place for the house of representatives. and on the house floor. lincoln gave this speech talking about where the mexican war began. and was this disputed territory, american territory, mexican territory, illinois has been one of the down-home states in the war, there was a creature at a political meeting in illinois who prayed for end of the war and he nearly got mixed and had to stop showing up in front of the group, they were so mad --

and had negative comments on the war. you can imagine how nixon makes a speech. a lot of things come out of the war. and send america on a collision course. and zachary taylor, very unlikely hero in america, someone who was are rare career military man in any apps -- he wins battle after battle after battle. at the battle of one of vista, and the president takes most of the regular group, and general winfield scott to make amphibious. and leaves taylor in the heart of mexico. general santa anna hears about

this and make the decision. and in the process, a former congressman who had tussled with lincoln 1846 congressional raise. and one of those incidents, what is so fascinated about the seemingly small things, that conspire to make great things happen on a world stage, in this case of john hart had led, if john hart had come back to mexico, the funeral in the mexican-american war, very little chance he would have emerged as the head of the republican party or a chance he would have been the nominee. in the republican party. we will never know because he dies in the final minutes of the

battle of one of is the blues so zachary taylor gets talked about as potential presidential bid. lincoln along with alexander stephens, vice president of the confederacy. they are among the first seven supporters of zachary taylor in the house of representatives. and the whigs ticket to victory after all this. and we don't know where he stands. and the mexican-american war, zachary taylor. and there is some reluctance to embrace this. link and who we place on a pedestal above everyday politics, running on principle long enough, let us try winning

and so lincoln and the others, the young indians set about finding realities for zachary taylor. of course there is another alternative. henry is making his final bid for the presidency, henry clay, former speaker of the house, secretary of state, founder of the whig party, the guy who invited their ideals. abraham lincoln said that henry clay was an ideal because this was a man for whom i have fought my entire adult life. he knows clay cannot win. lincoln doesn't claim to have any special knowledge about zachary taylor, but he knows they can when he, he believes they're having a perfect whig and having sat retailer, a democrat. whig who might have moved it, who if nothing else will fill the government of to this point.

the whigs in 1840, william henry harrison dies, and he hasn't given a lot of thought to who is vice president will be. the vice president is basically a democrat who gets kicked out of the whig party and they are not able to win a presidential race since they literally, the whigs only have the president by 30% so a lot of them--we hear a lot about that. this person is closer to our beliefs, this person can win and this is something political parties are still struggling with in the 1840s. what are the other major ones? shortly before the commencement of the mexican-american war, both run for the presidency and he wins on this expansionist platform, manifest destiny, americans are destined to go to the pacific and the country is destined to grow. one of the things he is going to

do is adjust the border. at this point, being administered jointly with the united kingdom, the backside of a tree, remember 54-40? that famous slogan? that was a line of latitude. didn't even come close. that might have allowed it to grow. we have a brand new territory, any time the united states acquires territory we have a problem. it keeps the union together. during the presidency of james monroe, missouri applied to coming as a slave state and said balance between slave states and free states so they come up with a plan out of the louisiana territory, will draw a line to be submitted before this line.

it is not about this and as a slave state named to come in as a free state and to keep together. now america has this new territory. lincoln and his colleagues stick to their guns fighting back and forth about how senator thompson, one of the principles that issues the will not survive. sounds like the biggest political -- in any new territory acquired by the united states, and so lincoln and his colleagues are able to win provide their language and the organization and that is the climactic issue of lincoln's first term. he is getting his feet under him and is giving a major address on the mexican-american war, a really interesting speech to see lincoln standard of taxpayers' against an attempt by special

interests for congress to give them a contract. something that i thought was pretty fascinating. while lincoln is a member of congress he lives in a place that is nicknamed abolition. this boarding house gets this nickname based on the people who live there. joshua giddings, chief among them. joshua giddings is not a name you hear about in school or that americans are very familiar with. it is unfortunate because it this time joshua giddings is the premier abolitionist in the united states. he and lincoln are living in the same boarding school and has a profound effect on lincoln, the slave case, this is lincoln who believe slavery was wrong and nothing you can do in congress to fix it but joshua giddings is working on beginning this evolution in abraham lincoln's believe on slavery. what does clinton do with the recess of the first congress?

abraham lincoln decides he's going to go into zachary taylor so he goes on campaign through the state of massachusetts on behalf of zachary taylor and says he is there to shake it out of his hair. the lawyers associated with being a western state or frontier state and very much that way when abraham lincoln, for the first time in american history lincoln is speaking before the most refined, intelligent groups in the country, opinion leaders, whigs of massachusetts and speaking on behalf of zachary taylor. what is interesting is he is not there to speak for zachary taylor against the democrats. he was going to win massachusetts, unless a third-party candidate by the name of martin van buren running on the new free soil cake which was created to avert zachary taylor mostly by former interest rates, trying to convince them that it is a great thing but

martin bent -- martin van buren, zachary taylor can win. so we need to make sure we work for zachary taylor to keep lewis cass out of the white house. what is interesting is lincoln goes to the philadelphia convention this in pennsylvania, lincoln's first trip to philadelphia, a chance to -- i suspect many of you have done it. abraham lincoln actually does a lot of the same things we have done in this book. in the recess that happened after zachary johnson through adams lincoln actually goes to mount vernon. like many of us have done, to washington, not a tourist site, but he is aware as custodian of the ground. just like many of us have. the philadelphia convention he meets a lot of people, people he

is not serving with in congress putter gentleman named thaddeus stevens from pennsylvania. everyone can remember him, played by tommy lee jones in the movie. they exchange their first letter. so they are able to write about that. after the convention lincoln is in massachusetts with his family happy to be reunited, a member of congress can tell you those families when they get elected to congress they have all this time to worry about take your family with you or be good for you to have your family in washington d.c. leave your family at home. you don't want them getting infected by that swamp or associated with congress. depending which member of congress you ask, lincoln actually did both. first, it that children go with him and he believes they are getting in his way, getting in a way of meetings with members of congress. mary had her expectations too.

mary todd lincoln, he was the most ambitious man in a world she might have been the most ambitious woman in the world. mary todd lincoln who because of an accident of biology and chronology was born into a time when she was a member of a gender who couldn't vote, she couldn't run for office, born in a different generation. she would have. when she was asked she was looking for a husband, the man who has the best chance of being president. who beside her would have guessed right especially when her suitors included lincoln--stephen douglas who bested lincoln every time they were together except the one time that mattered in the 1860 presidential race. lincoln's family went to kentucky for the second half of the first fashion and afterward they joined congress from massachusetts on behalf of zachary taylor. one more interesting anecdote,

for the first time, prominently in his life goes to a place called fremont, a church in boston, with the speaker in front of him, a gentleman by the name of william seward who of course goes on to the lincoln's chief of staff in the 1860 republican nomination for president and goes on to serve as secretary of state. seward gives a speech about slavery and in those days for what it is worth, they went back to his hotel room and lincoln said we were thinking about your speech and i have got to say, you have to talk more about the slavery issue. not enough -- we might actually take some action and that will be the name of the game. one more interesting thing lincoln does, lincoln is the first and only president ever to patent violence. when lincoln and his family are heading back to massachusetts he

stops in and pays a visit to the vice-presidential nominee of the whig party millard fillmore who would be president in two years. they are taking a steamer through the great lakes to get home to chicago. lincoln sees a stranded boat and he sees the captain throwing everything from the boat overboard and trying to get all of these, everything on the boat underneath to deploy over a sand bar. lincoln things wouldn't it be great if there was a device we have these air sacs and fill that and boost the both over barriers. he spends about free time with these fools trying to create a device to submit, and lincoln will do so successfully just as his time in congress is wrapping up, the first and only president to be awarded a patent.

so back to congress in the winter of 1849, the last session, zachary taylor successfully elected president and some major issues to deal with. .. can thinking about slavery, you can not see the movie and wonder why he was so dedicated. even at the expense of a prolonged civil war. unless you are familiar with his time and career and 30 of congress, lincoln actually comes up with with a bill to abolish slavery in the district of columbia. ..

>> lincoln will have the opportunity as president of the united states to sign a very similar bill banning slavery in the district of columbia, it just took him more time. one of the other interesting issues, and this is what i'm convinced lincoln would have handled differently had he not had these formative times with slavery. if you have a claim against the federal government at this time, you didn't go to the u.s. court of claims. it didn't exist yet. congress was in charge of hearing all these claims. so there was a claim from the owners of a slave named antonio, he's this multilingual, brilliant scholar who again, by an accident of birth, ends up as a slave. and he's lent out to the u.s.fa government at the end of the seminole war, and he's allowed to leave and, basically, escape so his heirs are looking forensa

money from the federal government.ncol abraham lincoln, i'm convinced, when he got to congress, we have to compensate this family.g but instead now lincoln, the sort of new thinking he has on slavery votes against compensating the family of antonio. what are some of the things i think lincoln's thinking? it was a little known event that happens in his time in congress. he's at a boarding house, they get served meals every day. one of the waiters was a black slave who was working there to work off his freedom. he was a married man. we don't know his name. we know his price was $300, he was $60 away from getting there x. he was kidnapped at gunpoint in front of his wife, and he waf sold into slavery in new orleans. we don't know what happened toh him. we don't know if he was freed at the hand of the union army commanded by president lincoln, we don't know if he died in slavery, we just don't know.

but imagine that a, you have this guy you get to know, he'sh serving youis food multiple tims a day, he's telling you excited he is to be free, and then one day you're talking to his wife, and she's in a panic, and she'sn trying to get you to help find him because he's been kidnapped at gunpoint. not really start to appreciate this evil for what it really is; not just an academic question necessarily, but something that needs to be stopped. so lincoln is a member of the first congress to actually deal with a fiscal cliff. we live in a time of fiscal cliff, debt ceiling standoffs, threatened government shutdown, rumors of government shutdowns. lincoln and the 30th congress were actually the first. what happens? we have a major appropriations bill that's coming at the very end of the second session of congress. and it's a clean pill, the whigb are basically trying to increase the pay of certain offices that they think they're going to get appointed to by zachary taylor.]

nothing too controversial. in the senate a gentleman by tha name of walker from the state of wisconsin attaches a rider to the bill prohibiting slavery -- i'm sorry, allowing president polk to organize all this new territory we have acquired from mexico at the conclusion of the mexican-american war, allowing president polk to organizeze itn the way he sees fit. well, what does that mean? president polk believed we should extend the missouri compromise line to the pacific ocean. so where we are in arizona right now would have been slave territory. and so really all this fighting is over the intermountain west and california and whether or not we're going to allow slavery in these areas. so lincoln every single time votes against this appropriations bill so long aso the walker amendment is attached to it.erri lincoln is willing to hut down a thend government in order to -- shutag down the government. the house goes pack and forth with the senate. it the house tries to change it up by prohibiting slavery in the

area instead of leaving it am piggous. -- ambiguous. the government looks like it's going to shut down. and imagine what a government shutdown looks like then.ion when lincoln called a special meeting of congress, he couldn'o get them sooner than july. even if you can call a special session of some kind, nobody's going to get there before the summertime, so you literally would have had diplomats leaving every u.s. embassy and consulate overseas. but lincoln is willing to accept this rather than open these millions of new acres to slavery. so anyone, and it's popular to sort of accuse lincoln of being johnny come lately to the issue, of using slavery for political reasons. lincoln could not have possiblyi voted to shut down the u.s.t is government, especially in aw state like illinois which was, for all intents and purposes, a slave state. he wouldn't have done this unless it proceeded from the convictions of his heart. so lincoln deals with this firsg

fiscal cliff at four in the morning, there's a fight over whether congress is still congress. some senators are saying, no. it's march 4th, today's the las day ofsh our term, it's over. we're not senators anymore. the government's going to shut n down. fortunately, a majority members of congress didn't agree with that interpretation. president pk he signed as his last duty in office. sworn in on monday there was a great inaugural ball and lincoln is the great party planner as a little-known fact. he raised money for the washington monument and he had money to help get it started but was there for the cornerstone july 4th july 4th, 1848. on the planning committee for a sack retailer at the

metro stop washington d.c. one of the biggest parties in washington and lincoln goes home at 3:00 in the morning he can find his cloak but not his hat. said he has to walk along the in the cold when french never forgot the story we've never forget the sight of that man walking out in judiciary square just in all these 12 years later the festivities would be for him. nobody saw the path he would take. the book concludes with him trying to get a job in the illustration. this time there is a talk of a meteor, it does during the

years. and 12 years later when they meet again with said general land office is a good thing he fails as a bureaucrat is not off moving to the forefront of the republican party, and not the senate but at the time he was depressed and was passed over. he went back to the hotel and made on his bet for an hour and thought it was the end of his career. history had something better in storer for mr. lincoln. one-term congressman and headed back to illinois like nothing happened. then he also becomes the first president to argue a supreme court case.

i think this is great as a lawyer with statutes of limitation most recently the 1990's and i bet they did not even realize who's the famous lawyer was targeted for the first time. this is the story of abraham lincoln where he came with the politicians and at the presidency 12 years later only this experience watching president polk up close is what he has going for him and watching zachary taylor put together administration improbably as an example of what not to do. i will take questions. thank you for your attention [applause]

>> you talking your book abraham lincoln was a great storyteller. what was the favorite stories you learned in your research? >> he is a great storyteller. he was so funny and could entertain just about any crowd. he had a story for every occasion. one of the places he likes to hang out in congress during the long boring speeches was the house post office just adjacent to the floor of the house where people could kick back and gossip and talk about people and lincoln goes in there around christmas 1840's seven. he works up courage to tell stories and self. people remember that he was a captain during the black

hawk war achieved came back across the mississippi river, the sellers are terrified what happened to them so they quickly put together a militia. lincoln is elected the cap sandy considered an honor anything greater than he had done, a greater than anything i have never done before. he talks about guiding these troops across the prairie. they come to a fence and he tries to figure out a command and he thinks about it and cannot come up with the. he cannot come up with the command but these people trust him to go into battle. he says this company is dismissed for two minutes and then we will reassemble on the other side of the fence. [laughter] somebody remembered that decades later when abraham

lincoln after he became famous people would write stories about him trying to remember what they could about this man. many believed he was an extraordinary person destined for big things. >> said tread scott decision were is that and the timeline? >>. >> that is something he was totally opposed to. there is a number of positions you can take with the american in territories saw one position was the extreme and the you to take slavery the missouri compromise is unconstitutional but lincoln has done the exact opposite no matter what we are not expanding slavery and he

always does so but then you have president polk plan with the missouri compromise line and james mckinnon who was secretary of state is of the same mind. teams began in comes out a couple-- after he is sworn in. he thinks it will be a good thing for his presidency and then seven states will secede from the union. they said it is good the supreme court decided. we will have slavery no one will question it. the opposite is true. lincoln is opposed, ed dred-scott pules the rise of the republican party to the north and paves the way for

abraham lincoln to become president of united states. said lincoln was very much opposed. >> did lincoln ever have any accomplishments in his one term after he left congress? >> he had a number of them. the conventional wisdom the was mediocre, and they cannot pass up a chance to say he is undistinguished, i absolutist reacting he was very distinguished and this is not very academic but he was a driving force between the omnibus post office bill. we can mail anywhere five days a week even in the grand canyon but the limited mail route dictated where you live or did business.

lincoln was on the roads committee the was a member of and he could help kraft this bill with procedural setbacks but get it passed signed by the president's opening rounds for people to live in the business for i have held that bill in my hands and his handwriting is all over it. it is interesting to see what will this take to get your vote? he could wheel and deal with the best of them in the 30th congress. also to compensate people in the district if they owe you money but lincoln would apply for patents for people , he would go get your

passport, he would go as a secretary of state for your passport. we were a smaller government back then members of congress good at home or washington the very few are both. he was deaf on and washington. his evolution speech at the time was very influential as part of the whigs -- president polk decides they

take too long now he wants the whole country in mexico pico people were open-minded we know he was the western united states but betty looks annexing all of mexico so they try to tap the brakes to keep it going forever. nicholas since they're waiting for the replacement never comes. winfield scott was to escort back to catch and shipped to mexico. he is stuck city decides i will negotiate the end of the war in the treaty is sent back to president polk he is outraged and ejected

tailored misstate -- administration to compensate for expensive but president polk cannot send the treaty to the senate after he publicly said the terms and it is everything he asked for initially before he changed his mind to get the whole thing. lincoln and his colleagues very, very successful. with the hands on the omnibus postal will and benefits those in his district, he is a player with the issues of "war and peace." >> you have shared a desk with some cool characters. had to interact with these guys? what is a process for finding the next turn in finding the next turn in your narrative?

>> it was great fun to research. had to add value to lincoln's story it is only the third book of him in congress in history there are so many books so i will look at letters of his colleagues from the 30th congress most people have not even looked sue their letters. one example of a house mate from abolition house his papers are in harrisburg pennsylvania. the curator it asking questions and i said is there anybody there who it is more familiar if it is worth the trip? he said in the 30 years i have been here now lenin is looking at these so i am looking at these papers nobody has ever look back. it took me to 13 states.

somebody asked me if i had to go to all 50 states to elect all members of the congress. [laughter] the answer was no. [laughter] i figured i would leave out the hawaii delegation hoping they didn't write anything to bad. so i would read the letters in people did not even microfilm them. that is the worst part of my job. when they see something interesting i type it down and have a note where i got it then they put them into a word file that i presented them off and i cross of the footnote as they use it in the manuscript. you start with a foundation

once i had all the correspondence reaching 46 for use that as a foundation in chronological order that is the easiest way to understand. then the correspondence of other people, of the diary of joshua, the newspaper that iran transcriptions of congress, the house journal echoes in rid is supposed to then they try to turn it into a book with historical data points. call folia have done that. that is a good question. the first time i did not know what the heck i was doing or getting into the second book i had a good process i look forward to it was the third book. >> i am under the understanding lincoln was a

pallbearer for john quincy adams. what relationship did they have? >> i have seen that in so many places but he is not a pallbearer, he is on the committee created to oversee the funeral arrangements, so they have a member from every state on the committee i think he is the only whigs from illinois they call him the lone star i think that is why he gets the honor there were fifth 50 states but -- for not city-state's but a lot of congressmen so they hammered out the details and he was on the subcommittee. i could put the two of them at a party where quincy adams was sitting by the door greeting everyone who came in.

remember the hamptons roads conference at the end of the movie negotiating the civil war? there is a story stevens reminded lincoln of remember the time the illinois delegation had a fight over how to pronounce the name illinois? back then people disagree so they bring in john quincy adams to mitigate you can get a former secretary of state to mitigate petty disputes before we had and i fell. [laughter] they said how to pronounce it? judging buy you guys i think it is pronounced all the noise. [laughter] >> he was good of finding mentors and people in

politics remember lincoln former -- father was a former who was an orphan his entire life. he needed to find mentors mentors, he needed to find people i cannot imagine a better person than john quincy adams. he is describing of being in all of them. this former president of high stature, worked for president washington, madison, monroe, no question lincoln would have sought him out but i try to make the best guess but neither of them ever recorded it. >> but the abolitionist? >> he was.

john quincy adams was a huge abolitionist fighting the gag rule. >> briefly mentioning his father a thing about his relationship with his dad as adults? >> it is not a great one but we don't know exactly what happens. when he is racing back to washington d.c. he gets the employment from zachary taylor he hears his father is deathly ill and stops by the father's home so he does that may be jeopardized as getting the appointment but in the final hours of his father's life lincoln said i don't think any good can come of me being there. said use your imagination he has always dealt fairly fairly, renowned for integrity, have a forgiving nature and never held

grudges. you can only imagine what would have been the case to set him off when he actually passes away. not a great relationship but one person said i liked the way he treated his father and was too indulgent of his children i am sure that was because he did not have that as a child and wanted his children to be happy no matter what. they drove people and abolition house crazy. i will not quote them verbatim as we're on a family friend of one negative family friendly channel on c-span and he's said

>> i wanted to know what lessons lincoln took away and took to the presidency with him. he thought not only was polk overbearing, but that polk tried to use congress as ap rubber -- as a rubber stamp. so he tried to be veryen solicitous of congress, to try to keep them in the p loop, make them feel as though they were part of the decision-making process even though when he'd already made the decisions for them. when he becomes president, hekep issues a call for a certain amountak of money to fund the civil war.r th congress actually increases thep number of troops and increases the appropriation. and one of the things lincoln was very mindful of, you know,r

polk fought very publicly withr zachary taylor.i i'm convinced that's one of the reasons he decided to run for president. polk basically could not make a pronouncement about any of his generals. really triesli to politicize the war. lincoln tries to politicize it in a different way. in fact, lincoln's first three appointments, the generals in the union army are all democrats all representing some sort of important constituency. first te appointments for general sir democrats representing a day important constituent, ethnic group, many were elected officials, lincoln knows when you lose public support for a war and you lose congress, the war is over he knew he could defeat the south and restore the union but not with his hands tied behind his back. so they're very mindful as a member of congress and is very successful to avoid

problems. >> you wrote lincoln was very depressed and unhappy with his marriage to mary todd. did it get better? >> it was always a difficult relationship. he did try to break off once today it is not like breaking an engagement if you go all the way to being gauged then a woman was damaged goods. it damage prospects for marriage and he made her unhappy one of the nicest people could not live with himself knowing he made someone so unhappy so when he thought he would marry her he would get ready at his best friend's house and the sun said where you